Partial Justice Was Delivered In Khalra Murder Cas

dhan_dhan_sikhi · December 20, 2005

Justice delayed is justice denied

Partial justice was delivered in Khalra murder case

We must continue to get justice till KPS Gill is punished

Jaswant Singh Khalra, General Secretary of the Human Right Wing of the Shiromani Akali Dal, a Sikh political party, was picked up by the police from his home- 8 Kabir Park, Amritsar, at 9:15 a.m. on September 6, 1995 and has not been seen since. Amnesty International sought the intervention of Home Minister S. B. Chavan and Punjab Chief Minster Harcharan Singh Brar for the release of Mr. Khalra. It expressed fears about his safety, saying: "He has not been produced in court and his relatives have not been officially informed about his whereabouts." International Human Rights Organisation (IHRO) also urged his immediate release. IHRO Chairperson D. S. Gill asked the Chief Minister Mr Brar to personally intervene and ensure Mr. Khalra's release. An Akali Dal delegation led by Gurcharan Singh Tohra, President, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), in the meantime met, Punjab Governor B. K. N. Chhibber.

On September 12, the Supreme Court of India issued notice to the Punjab Police and the state government to explain the disappearance. It treated the telegram sent by the SGPC president Mr. Tohra as a habeas corpus petition and heard the petition filed by Paramjit Kaur, spouse of Mr. Khalra. In her petition, Ms Khalra alleged that the Tarn Taran police had picked up her spouse using the assassination of Beant Singh as an excuse. In actuality, however, the Tarn Taran police wanted to settle score with him as he had enabled several victims of police excesses to file cases in the high court that had put the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Ajit Singh Sandhu, in a tight spot.

A large number of political and human rights groups gathered at Chandigarh on September 28 to protest against the disappearance. More than 200 human rights and political activists joined the protest march to Raj Bhawan (Governor’s home) bare-footed on that day. They included Simranjit Singh Mann, Harcharan Singh Rode, Justice A. S. Bains, D. S. Gill, R. N. Kumar, Gurtej Singh, Ranjan Lakhanpal, Gurdip Singh, Gurbhajan Singh Gill and Kalyan Singh Patna Sahib. As a follow-up, IHRO called upon Sikh and other human rights groups to celebrate December 10, the UN Human Rights Day as protest day against Mr. Khalra's disappearance. Protests and demonstrations were held in India, North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Asian and African countries.

There was a protest march to Parliament in New Delhi. Hundreds of protesters demonstrated near Parliament Police Station, where they held a rally. They accused the government of allowing the security forces in Punjab to violate the rule of law. Supreme Court lawyer and eminent human rights activist Ms Nitya Ramaswamy warned: "If the institutional remedies against such violations were not forthcoming, bonds of nationhood that bind the people with the state shall cease to be." Ms Sudesh Vaid alleged: "The CBI lacks the necessary power and independence to determine the truth in case of serious human rights violation by important functionaries of the security forces, especially in Punjab," reports United News of India (UNI).

According to the UNI story filed by Jaspal Singh Sidhu, Sikh Student Federation (SSF) leader Rajinder Singh Mehta, well-known human rights activist D. S. Gill, Justice A. S. Bains and former Akal Takht Jathedar Bhai Jasbir Singh Rode were among the several other personalities who participated and spoke at the rally. Akal Takht acting Jathedar Prof. Manjit Singh also joined the march besides several other Akali leaders. They included Mr. Tohra, President, SGPC, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa (Badal group), Sucha Singh Chhotepur (Mann Group), DSGMC president and it members. Members of PUCL and PUDR and other civil rights groups too joined the protest march.

In a memorandum to UK Prime Minister John Major, IHRO European President, Barrister Harjit Singh said: "The worrying aspect of the Khalra saga is that it is not an isolated incident. In Punjab, such cases are legion. In 1992 another human rights activist and lawyer, Kulwant Singh Saini, along with his young spouse and 15-month-old son, was killed by the police when Saini turned up at the police station to represent a client. It was the family's misfortune to accompany him to the police station. Clearly, the police wanted no witnesses. Other three Sikh lawyers working in the human rights field have also been killed since. The Indian Constitution and the Indian Penal and Criminal Procedure Codes do provide safeguards against unacknowledged detentions but these are of little use in practice. In such cases and particularly in cases of 'disappearances,' cases brought before the courts move extremely slowly. Another exasperating factor is that the Chief Minister of Punjab and the Director General of Punjab Police, KPS Gill, have been working hand in glove. Indeed, KPS Gill is the political overlord in the state and is responsible for thousands of extra-judicial killings. We, therefore, urge you to intercede with the Indian authorities to ensure Mr. Khalra’s release forthwith; alternatively that he is brought before the courts and charged.”

Responding to the memorandum, John Major asked the Foreign Office to reply. FL Gristock, South Asia Department, in its letter of December 1995, informed the IHRO European office: "Our High Commission in New Delhi is monitoring the case of Mr Khalra and has on several occasions, most recently on 12 December, raised this case with the Indian Government." IHRO North America Coordinator Gurdev Singh Gill, in a similar memorandum to Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, said: "Since you are leading a large team to India for investment purpose we strongly feel that it is the right time to remind you about Mr Khalra's disappearance. Canadian short-term economic interests should never prevail over human lives. Canada being a champion of Human Rights, you may please consider linking every agreement signed with Government of India with correcting their human rights record. Let us make loud and clear that unabated human rights violation and suppression of minorities can no longer be tolerated in the New World order. I therefore urge you to intercede with the Indian Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao to ensure Mr. Khalra's release." Mr Chrétien took up the case with Mr Rao and Mr Brar, while in New Delhi. It is believed that he had also met Ms Khalra there. Canadian Foreign Minister, Andre Ouellette, in a letter to the IHRO coordination office, Toronto, told that they had raised the matter with Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the United Nations, New York, in October and in the meeting of the Heads of Commonwealth Countries at Auckland, New Zealand, in November last.

Colleen Beaumier, MP, also lobbied to obtain Mr Khalra' release. She mobilized other MPs. and Senators. Herb Dhaliwal and Gurbax Singh Malhi, both Sikh MPs, who had accompanied Mr Chrétien to India, did a lot in this case on behalf of the Sikh community there. IHRO and some Sikh organisations joined hands in Toronto and observed January 26 as "black day" in protest against the disappearance. The protesters appealed to their fellow Canadians to rethink their policy of trade missions to a country like India that has a bad record of human rights. Twenty-four Sikh organisations of the United States of America and Canada, in an advertisement published in New York Times on the opinion page in December, accused India of state terrorism. They said that Mr Khalra (about whom President Bill Clinton has showed his concern) was indeed arrested and disappeared after he filed a legal petition that the Punjab police had killed and cremated hundreds of Sikhs.

US Members of Congress John Doolittle and Dan Burton, in their resolution (No 233 of September 28, 1995) in House of Representatives, condemned the disappearance, saying: "The House joins World Sikh Organisation in condemning the abduction of Mr Khalra and urging his immediate release." Rep. Vic Fazio and 60 other Members of Congress wrote to Mr Rao, expressing their concern about Mr Khalra's fate.

Despite hundreds of petitions from all over the world and numerous demonstrations, the Punjab police remained dilly-dallying. It was only last week that the CBI court at Patiala awarded mild sentence of life to DSP Jaspal Singh and others, while completely ignoring the role of KPS Gill in the murder of Mr Khalra. We must continue to get justice for Mr Khalra till KPS Gill is also punished.